F-M girls indoor track beats J-D at Jensen Relays

Just a few days before 2011 ended, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls indoor track and field team propelled itself to a victory in Wednesday’s Oscar Jensen Holiday Relays at Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena.

The Hornets, in fact, beat out Jamesville-DeWitt for those team honors, earning 70 points as the Red Rams, with 55 points, held off Cicero-North Syracuse (52 points) for the second spot.

F-M, as expected, amassed lots of points in distance running. Jillian Fanning and Katie Sischo, in their first meet since helping the Hornets win a fifth straight cross country national championship earlier this month, went 1-2 in the 1,500-meter run, as Fanning won in 4:50.35 and Sischo was second in 4:52.35.

Natalie Zazzara and Marri Ryu did the same in the 300-meter dash, Zazzara prevailing in 43.15 seconds and Ryu second in 43.83 seconds, which kept the J-D team of Liz Pieri and Ally Fox second in 1:29.05, more than two second behind the Hornets. Zazzara and Ryu returned in the 400-meter dash to get second place in 2:06.29.

In the 1,000-meter run, Katie Brislin gave F-M another victory in 3:02.14 as Alana Pearl (3:09.14) completed yet another 1-2 sweep by F-M. Olivia Ryan and Hannah Smith helped the Hornets take the 600-meter run in a combined 3:27.54 by taking second and third, respectively, behind Liverpool’s Ore Akinpelu.

Finally, Maggie Malone and Jenna Farrell combined as F-M won the 800-meter run in a combined 5:06.70, J-D again in the second spot as Fairbanks and Carpenter posted 5:11.96.

The Rams saw Maggie Fuller clear 5 feet 5 inches, a season best, to win the high jump, gaining sixth all by herself in the team event as F-M took fifth. But J-D did win the pole vault, where Danielle Doss and Liz Pieri combined to clear 16 feet.

Annika Avery and Emily McGurrin gave F-M a third-place finish in the 3,000-meter run in 22:41.61. The Hornets were also fifth (21.24 seconds) in the 55-meter hurdles, where J-D’s tandem of Noelle Novakowski and Amanda Lee took third place in 20.62 seconds. Fox and Sierra Vasiliou were fourth in the 55-meter dash in 15.63 seconds.

Rachel Fairbanks and Emilee Carpenter get second place in the 1,500 (10:15.23) behind F-M, with East Syracuse-Minoa’s duo of Juliette Miller and Brittany Kubecka fifth in 11:13.93.

Vasilliou and Fuller were third in the long jump (28 feet 3 1/4 inches), where ESM’s Amanda Wall won the individual event by going 15 feet 4 3/4 inches, adding to a victory she got in the triple jump by leaping 32 feet 10 inches. F-M was fifth in that event.

On the boys side at the Jensen Relays, F-M landed in second place, with 62 points, trailing only CNS, who claimed the top spot with 82 points. J-D eased into sixth place with 26 points.

Nick Ryan won the individual mile in 4:26.19, with CBA’s Brendan Smith second (4:27.62) as Ryan and Bryce Millar took the event in a combined 9:02.18. Ryan also roared to first place in the 3,200-meter run in 9:49.52, beating the field by more than 10 seconds and, with Andrew Berger, earning another victory in 20:31.07.

Also, the Hornets’ Austin Perez won twice, beating the field in the 400-meter dash in 52.05 seconds and claiming team honors with Aaron Blitz by edging Corcoran, 1:49.37 to 1:49.43. Perez also won the individual 300-meter sprint in 36.51 seconds. Colin Fitzgibbons and Riley Hughes were second in the 1,000 in 5:47.43.

Langston Lightcap and Charlie Beeler earned a victory in the 600 in 2:53.19 as ESM’s Mike Coogan was second (1:24.54) among individuals. Beeler and Millar were fifth in the 800-meter run in 4:28.60, with ESM claiming sixth place in 4:30.81.

Zhengyue Zhu and Tanner Carter were third in the long jump, going 35 feet 10 1/4 inches between them, leaving J-D in sixth, and Zhu returned with Kyle Harbour as they took third in the triple jump (72 feet 6 3/4 inches), while Navale Taylor and Will Cote put J-D (71 feet 5 1/4 inches) in fourth.

J-D got most of its points from the 55 hurdles, where Will Sterriker and Nate Sturgeon combined for the top time of 16.78 seconds. In the 55-meter dash, the Rams’ Amani Jackson beat CBA’s Deshawn Salter, 6.68 seconds to 6.83, as Jackson and Marquis Drummond were third (13.87 seconds) overall. Zach Liebmann cleared 10 feet 6 inches in the pole vault for fourth place.

All of the local indoor track stars are back at SRC Arena on Jan. 6 to compete in the George Constantino Memorial meet.